This document is a 3,000 word essay arguing for equal pay for women in the workforce. It discusses the historical disadvantages women have faced in the Australian workforce, including being paid less than men for the same work. It outlines the progression of relevant legislation from the early 20th century to present day. Finally, it proposes four recommendations for organizations to implement internally focused on recruitment, flexibility, culture change, and equal remuneration to help close the gender pay gap.

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Daniel Kocsis U1030775
Paying women equally: Essential for organisations
MGT2006 – Employment Relations
Assignment 3
Word count (1800 -10%): 1683

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At first glance, it would not seem that paying women in the workforce could provide such
debate and public discourse. In Australia, this is not yet the case, issues such as equal pay for
equal work, equal employment rights and opportunities are all prevalent factors in today's
society. As of May 2015, when comparing full time equivalent (FTE) adult overall time
earnings, women are paid at 17.9% less than men (Australian Bureau Statistics 2015). This
essay will begin by explaining the historical disadvantages that women have faced throughout
Australia's modern history. It will list, discuss and highlight any shortfalls in the legislation
surrounding the participation of paid women in the workforce. Finally this essay will turn to
address these disadvantages by suggesting a plan that can be implemented using internal
policy. This essay will advocate for women in the workforce and argue for equal pay for
equal work.
Historical disadvantages
Management's policies and practises are influenced by several key factors such as the
organisational strategic direction, stakeholder value, shareholders, owners, and historical
events. Indeed, it could be argued that any modern framework could be shaped on past
events. This concept may also explain the unethical nature of underpaying women throughout
history, considering that a corporate entity does not host human emotion or even logical
thought even though it is controlled by humans. It is with this in mind that this section will
explain the historical disadvantages for women in the workforce.
In the workplace women continue to be under-represented in leadership roles and are over-
represented in casual, part time and low paid industries despite two major factors. Firstly,
Australian society consists of 50.45 per cent women (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014).
Secondly, 40 per cent of women have a tertiary qualification, compared to 34 per cent of men
(Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). Indeed, women on the boards of ASX listed

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companies has increased most recently to 20.1 per cent, up from 8.2 per cent in 2010 and
18.6 per cent in 2014, which is a positive incline, yet still a major example of a historical
disadvantage (Australian Institute of Company Directors 2015).
Industrial segregation refers to two stereotypical labour markets. The first is labelled ‘men’s
work’, which has been more highly valued in comparison to the second type: ‘women’s
work’ (Department of Justice and Attorney general 2009; Strachan 2010). However,
industries are not always dominated by men. 79.8 percent of health care and social assistance
employees in financial year 2012-2013 were female yet only 69.2 percent of management
were female (Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2014a). Therefore, the disadvantage is
quite apparent in addition to the 27.7 percent pay gap in the 2014/2015 financial year
(Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2015). It is asserted that industrial segregation has led
to a deeply imbedded undervaluing of women, resulting in unequal employment opportunity.
Legislation
Prior to 1972, it was a mentality that men worked to support the family even though it could
be argued that a marriage is a partnership of equal value. This breadwinner mentality appears
to date back as far as the 1907 Harvester Judgement, which became the precedent for arguing
fair and minimum wages (Australian War Museum 2015; Fair Work Commission 2014). The
judgement however did not mention any particular feministic terms, therefore, it was
assumed that only a male can be considered a labourer or a journeyman. In fact, the appeal
for equal wages for males and females was initially rejected during the Fruitpickers case of
1912 and remained unlegislated until World War II (WWII).
For women, the first pay control legislation occurred during WWII, after women populated
approximately 25% of the workforce and significantly engaged valued roles previously
occupied by men (Strachan 2010, pp. 119 – 120). The legislation stipulated that women’s

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wages were to increase to 25 percent less than a man’s basic wage. In other-words, just for
being female, women had to work more to earn the same amount, despite other
responsibilities.
Strachan (2010) maintains that women in the workforce climbed to 38.6% in the 1970s,
which facilitated a stronger civil rights and women’s movement. Trade unions were able to
negotiate successful equal pay cases. The first was in 1969, however it did not include most
women due to Principle 9 which stated that ‘equal pay should not be provided… where the
work in question is essentially or usually performed by females but is work upon which male
employees may also be employed’ (Equal Pay Case 1972, cited in Strachan 2010, p. 121).
This eventually paved the way to the removal of principal 9 in 1972 which activated equal
remuneration for men and women.
Post 1972, further issues were exposed. Equal pay was still not mandatory, it was argued on
an individual case basis and what was considered ‘women’s work’ was still undervalued
(Strachan 2010, p. 122). On a state level, governments began implementing anti-
discrimination legislation to protect workers from unfair treatment, thus paradigms were
shifting.
Indeed, in 1980, the Menzies liberal government signed the United Nation’s Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Affirmative
Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Bill 1986 provides a background to its
implementation in that a sex discrimination bill was tabled in 1981, with the objectives of
equal employment opportunity (EEO) and eliminating discrimination. In 1983, the Hawke
government ratified CEDAW before separately implementing the Sex Discrimination Act
1984 and Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunity for Women) Act 1986 to ensure that it did
not ‘unduly disrupt business or prejudice women's long-term employment prospects’

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(National Archives of Australia 2015; Strachan 2010). Affirmative Action (Equal
Opportunity for Women) Act 1986 was then replaced by The Equal Opportunity for Women
in the Workplace Act 1999 (Commonwealth) which promotes employment opportunities
based on merit, the elimination of indirect and direct discrimination and it recommends
workplace consultation on issues concerning EEO for women (Department of Social Services
2014). This makes employers responsible for EEO, instigating a need to consider internal
policies.
Internal Policy
Internal policies provide organisations with structural stability through processes and system.
Employers must now turn to consider their internal policies and what they can do to facilitate
the shift in paradigm or else attract union attention or face consequences from fair work and
industrial courts. Change not only requires a strong focus on the internal cultural values and
structural systems but should also support all employee needs whilst ensuring the financial
viability of the organisation. Change should ultimately aim at closing the gap by addressing
the under-valuing of the work completed by women and the under-representation of women
in leadership roles. This section aims to provide employers with a practical outline in order to
facilitate this change, providing of course: that they want to change in the first place.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency suggests that organisations can be at different stages
of commitment and action, therefore begin their ‘journey’ from that point. The six inclusive
stages begin at the least committed: ‘avoiding’, ‘compliant’, ‘programmatic’, ‘strategic’,
‘integrated’ and finally the most committed stage: ‘sustainable’ (Workplace Gender Equality
Agency 2014b, p. 11). The more actions that an organisation takes, the more committed they
are, which causes a stage change. The point of this is to illustrate that some organisations will
need to shape their strategic direction differently to others, therefore they should start with an

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audit of their internal systems and aim for a sustainable outcome which should provide
benefits to the employer but most importantly addresses the unethical nature of underpaying
or undervaluing women.
The first recommendation involves building a recruitment and selection policy that is
committed to EEO. It is important to foster a culture that encourages opportunity for all
people based on an effective evaluation procedure that has nothing to do with gender or any
other forms of discrimination and in addition it should support retention to keep the ‘best
people in the organisation for as long as possible’ (Doughty 2015, p. 11).
The second recommendation aims to increase the opportunities available for women in
workplaces, not just lower paid positions. In coordination with the first recommendation,
organisations should be able to offer flexible positions, especially in positions of leadership.
Flexibility might range from the types of work and the shifts available through to family
friendly hours. Training and development should be available to boost propositions into
leadership roles. Flexibility should not however be used as criteria for payments as this is not
considered ‘transparent’ and results in increasing the pay gap (Human Rights 1998, p. 14).
Recommendation three addresses the culture of undervaluing and underpaying of women.
Organisations should start by reviewing organisational values and adding a value that is more
inclusive or is aimed at anti-discrimination or perhaps an in house slogan that reads ‘working
together to achieve’. The concept is to promote equality. In fact managers could have
qualitative key personal indicators that target the value (Workplace Gender Equality Agency
2014c).
Recommendation four suggests that organisations need to provide equal remuneration and
benefits. In other words organisations could remove all gender based systems and replace
with a simple incremented pay structure. An example might be 10 increments of pay ranging

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between fifty and sixty thousand dollars or twenty-five dollars per hour to thirty-five dollars
per hour, depending on the role and its scope. Increments should be objectively accessible
and achievable by all people regardless of gender and benefits. Benefits such as bonuses paid
on the discretion of the employer, should also be accessible to part-time staff (Human Rights
1998).
This paper aimed to provide insight, prevalence and historical background into what should
no longer be an issue. It is however still prevalent and therefore an outline of
recommendations was provided to encourage the buy-in for organisations to implement
strategies for the overall benefit of women in the workforce. It is without a doubt that
histrionically, key issues for women in the workforce revolve around being treated unfairly,
undervalued and underpaid. It does seem however, that there has been a shift in legislation
and thus society encouraging strategies to be implement by organisations demonstrating that
equal opportunity and pay is more achievable than a distant possibility.

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References
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September 2015,
<http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features20Sep+2012>.
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014, 3101.0 - Australian Demographic Statistics, Jun 2014,
viewed 8 September 2015,
<http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1CD2B1952AFC5E7ACA257298000F2E76?O
penDocument>.
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2015, 6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, May
2015, viewed 8 September 2015, <http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6302.0>.
Australian Institute of Company Directors 2015, Appointments to S&P/ASX 200
Boards, viewed at 8 September 2015, <http://www.companydirectors.com.au/Director-
Resource-Centre/Governance-and-Director-Issues/Board-Diversity/Statistics>.
Australian War Memorial, 2015, Australian men - the basic wage, viewed 8 September 2015,
<https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/forging/australians/men.asp>.
Department of Justice and Attorney general 2009, Why is there a gender pay gap?, viewed 8
September 2015, <http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/60646/Why-is-
there-a-gender-pay-gap.pdf>.

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Doughty, S 2015, 'Achieving Equal Pay - Fantasy Or Within Our Grasp?', Human Resources
Magazine, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 10-11, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 9
September 2015,
<http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=880c3a64-
5c9a-4c49-b126-19b9a148f67f%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=115>.
Fair Work Commission 2014, Harvester Case, viewed 8 September 2015,
<https://www.fwc.gov.au/waltzing-matilda-and-the-sunshine-harvester-
factory/documents/harvester-case>.
Human Rights 1998, Equal Pay Handbook, viewed 9 September 2015, <
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/pdf/sex_discrim/equal_pay.pdf>.
National Archives of Australia 2010, Background to the 1984 and 1985 Cabinet records,
viewed 13 September 2015, <http://www.naa.gov.au/>.
Strachan, G 2010, 'Still working for the man? Women's employment experiences in Australia
since 1950', Australian Journal of Social Issues (Australian Council of Social Service), 45, 1,
pp. 117-130, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 8 September
2015.
Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2014a, All industries snapshot – 2012- 13 reporting
period (Superseded), viewed 8 September 2015,
<https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/2013_All_industries_fact_sheet.pdf>.

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Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2014b, Gender Strategy Toolkit, viewed 9 September
2015, <https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/Gender_Strategy_Toolkit.pdf>.
Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2014c, Developing a Workplace Gender Equality
Policy, <https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/Characteristics-of-a-Gender-Equality-
policy.pdf>.
Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2015, Gender pay gap statistics, viewed 8 September
2015, <https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/Gender_Pay_Gap_Factsheet.pdf>.
Legislation
Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Bill 1986
Equal Pay Case (1972) 147 CAR 172
Ex parte HV McKay (Harvester Case) (1907) 2 CAR 1
The Mildura Branch of the Australian Dried Fruits Association and Others (Fruit-pickers
Case) (1912) 6 CAR 61